Chicken in Lemon Sauce

Mmmmm. So last night, since it was Valentine’s Day my Half-Birthday, I decided I had a good excuse to try out a new recipe. And while I’m no Mary-Hall going all Little House On The Prairie, if you remember, I did set a goal to cook one new recipe every month. The clock was ticking because I hadn’t cooked one this month, and I’m leaving town Sunday for the remainder of the month of February (more on that later! ooh the suspense!) so it was kind of now or never. I’m happy to say there is now one more X on my list.

A few months ago I was treated to a yummy home-cooked meal by the fiance of one of my dearest friends. He served up this amazing lemon chicken dish so I decided to try it out. And as always here at twogirlsturningthirty….whenever we cook something, we always pass along the recipe. And since I’m not one to take credit where credit isn’t due me, I’m letting you all know that this recipe is “from Brenda.” While I don’t personally know her, I’m thankful she was willing to share with aforementioned fiance of a friend, and I’m sure she’d love to know that you all were enjoying it too. Oh, and I’m posting the original recipe for you here, but I halved it and only made two chicken breasts so we wouldn’t have left-overs. A decision which we somewhat regretted after we inhaled the two that I’d made.

Chicken in Lemon Sauce (from Brenda)

Ingredients:

*1/4 cup butter or margarine (I used SmartBalance spread and it was excellent. I also used a little extra virgin olive oil when the buttery spread evaporated too quickly)

*4 whole chicken breasts (split, skinned and boned)

*2 tablespoons white cooking wine (or dry white wine)

*1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel (I bought a lemon for 44 cents at wal-mart, grated the peel i needed and then cut the lemon in quarters and put it in my garbage disposal after I did the dishes. It made my whole kitchen smell amazing!)

*2 tablespoons lemon juice

*1/4 teaspoons salt

*1/8 teaspoons ground WHITE pepper (this one had me standing in the spices aisle for quite some time before I found it. You could probably substitute regular ground black pepper, but I can say that the time spent looking and the $2.50 was worth it for me as the flavoring was PERFECT!)

*1 cup heavy cream

*1/3 cup grated parmesan

*1 cup sliced mushrooms.

Directions:

Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken. Cook, turning approximately 10 minutes (mine took a little longer, but I didn’t split my chicken breasts either.) or until chicken is brown and tender. Remove chicken and place in an ovenproof dish. Discard butter (and any olive oil you may have added) from the skillet. Add wine, lemon peel and lemon juice to skillet; cook and stir over medium heat for 1 minute. Stir in salt and white pepper. Gradually pour in cream stirring constantly until hot. DO NOT LET MIXTURE BOIL. Pour cream sauce over chicken, sprinkle with cheese and mushrooms. Put in oven with broiler on approximately 6 inches from heat until lightly browned. (I let it cook about 8 minutes.) (I served it with green beans as a side, which was super yummy and I’d recommend serving it on top of a bed of brown rice or whole wheat egg noodles. I totally ran out of time or I would have done just that.)

straight from the oven! so yummy looking!

maybe not the most gormet "plateing" of a meal, but it sure tasted amazing!

Question: So what did YOU eat last night? Did you go out for an amazing meal with a hot date? Cook something cozy for two at home? Devour an entire gallon of ice cream with your closest girl-friends while watching Pride and Prejudice and lamenting over the lack of modern-day Mr. Darcys? Do tell!